MeltdownBig brands in Sec 17 take flight
Chandigarh, December 21
In the wake of the global meltdown, certain big brands are bidding adieu to Sector 17. High rentals and dwindling profits have apparently forced the brands to either shut shop or contemplate shifting to comparatively cheaper locations in the city.

Mohali youth dies in Kalka rail accident
Mohali, December 21
A fun trip to Shimla turned tragic for a 22-year-old Mohali resident,
Surinder, who died in a rail accident between Dharampur and Sonwar railways stations on the Kalka-Shimla rail section today.Surinder’s sister breaks down on seeing his body being taken away for the last rites in Mohali on Sunday; and (inset) a file photo of
Surinder. Tribune photo: Vicky Gharu

‘Ghajini’ a hair-razor
Chandigarh, December 21
Adding to the hype of the much-awaited film, “Ghajini”, PVR cinemas has gone all out to ensure the success of the film by getting its employees with chocolate looks to sport Aamir Khan’s haircut.

Madanpur Housing Society
Members accuse office-bearers of wrongdoing
Mohali, December 21
Tempers ran high at Chapparchidi village here when a large number of Delhi-based members of the Madanpur Cooperative House Building Society converged there accusing the managing committee of keeping the members in the dark and indulging in wrongdoing.
The centre of dispute was 98.55 acres of prime land owned by the society.

Agitated members of the Madanpur Cooperative House Building Society air their grievance during a meeting called at Chapparchidi village on Sunday. A Tribune photograph

Residents confront Ayyapa temple workers
Stall landscape work alleging encroachment
Chandigarh, December 21
A group of Sector-47 residents allegedly prevented officials of the Ayyapa temple committee from carrying out landscape work behind the temple here today.
The residents reportedly abused them and accused them of encroaching on public land.

Defence DealsHike in penalty for foreign vendors sought
Chandigarh, December 21
Expressing concern over the government’s limitations to initiate action against foreign vendors violating the terms of the offset policy governing defence deals, a parliamentary panel wants the government to hike the penalty applicable in such cases.

No rain, no chill for 5 more days
Chandigarh, December 21
The temperature in the city will continue to oscillate for the next couple of days as the mercury is expected to dip at night and increase during daytime.

Students on their way to examination centre on a foggy morning in Chandigarh. Tribune photo: Himanshu Mahajan

Relay hunger strike enters sixth day
Chandigarh, December 21
While the relay hunger strike by the ex-servicemen has entered the 6th day today, two retired soldiers have proceeded on a fast unto death. The ex-servicemen are protesting against the government’s attitude towards their demands.

75,000 children given polio drops
Chandigarh, December 21
The Chandigarh administration's health department through elaborate arrangements for pulse polio immunisation campaign today provided oral polio vaccine to children in the age group of 0-5 years in Chandigarh.

Hindi Translator’s CaseCAT quashes termination orders
Chandigarh, December 21
An employee of the Income Tax Appellate has got relief by the Central Administrative Tribunal (CAT), as the tribunal has quashed her termination orders from the post of Hindi translator passed by the Appellate.

Ru-ba-ru with Punjabi poet
Chandigarh, December 21
Writers’ Club, a literary society, organised a face-to-face programme with the acclaimed Punjabi litterateur, Amin
Mallik, at the Punjab Kala Bhavan here yesterday. Hailing from Pakistan, Mallik is settled in London for over two decades but his heart beats for the promotion and propagation of Punjabi.

Rights panel for UT, Haryana sought
Chandigarh, December 21
Citizen Forum on Human Rights, an NGO, celebrated its 60th anniversary of universal human rights at Punjab Kala Bhawan
here today. The programme started with two minutes silence for the peace of those people who died in the Mumbai terrorist attack.

Commuters switch on the lights of their vehicles as fog reduced visibility in Chandigarh on Sunday morning.
Tribune photo: Manoj Mahajan

Two PTL units shut
Mohali, December 21
To maintain a balance between demand and supply of tractors, Mohali and Chappar
Chidi-based units of Punjab Tractors Limited (PTL), a subsidiary of Mahindra and
Mahindra, has decided to close down the production for six day each of the plants.

Councillor stages protest against Mohali MC
Mohali, December 21
A municipal councillor living in Sector 70 staged a protest along with residents of her ward outside the office of the municipal council here on Friday alleging that the civic body had failed to provide proper sanitation in the area and free it from the menace of stray animals.

City ScopeWe and our law enforcers
I don't want to sound cynical but it seems that human life comes cheap in our country. Or how else can we explain our insensitivity to loss of human lives, be it in road accidents everyday or in horrific and tragic incidents like the recent Mumbai terror attacks.

IT-enabled education in thing, says expert
Chandigarh, December 21
With information technology (IT) making inroads into every sphere of life, the traditional system of education is on its way out paving way for the integrated IT-enabled and innovative system of education.

Regular appointments need of the hourPU flouts security norms
Chandigarh, December 21
Though the security has become a buzzword in Panjab University, the same has never been reviewed by the authorities, as it seems they are busy passing bucks between private security and their own regular security resources.

NSS camp at city college
Chandigarh, December 21
District education officer, Khushinder Sharma, inaugurated a week-long NSS special camp at
G.M.S.S.S., Sector 23, Chandigarh. Over 100 volunteers from the school participated in various activities like AIDS awareness, cleanliness, personal hygiene, traffic rules and literacy.

Seminar on economic meltdown
Chandigarh, December 21
Indian institute of materials management, Chandigarh, celebrated its 24th annual day by holding a seminar on efficient and effective supply chain in global economic meltdown at Panjab university, here today.

First school to implement one-on-one
learning
Mohali, December 21
Shantanu Prakash, managing director (MD), Educomp Solutions Limited, a player in the global education space, today formally inaugurated The Millennium School (TMS) in Sector 67,
Mohali.

From SchoolsXmas carnival at school
Panchkula, December 21
“X-Mas Carnival-2008” was held on the occasion of the Saupinites’ Panchkula Alumni (SPA) Meet here today.
Various fun games like pull the thread, feeding the joker, hoopla, key to success, learn French in one minute, joy rides and sumptuous food stalls made the event a roaring success.

PU quiz winners set for national youth fest
Chandigarh, December 21
The Panjab university quiz team, which won in the 24 th North Zone Inter-University Youth Festival, will participate in the national youth festival at
Medinipur, West Bengal, in January, 2009.

Chandigarh, December 21
“Disability should not be linked with mercy or grief but with uprightness and encouragement,” said Promila Chandra Mohan, principal of Society for Rehabilitation of Mentally challenged
(SOREM), at Comprehensive Centre, here today.Special kids perform at the SOREM Comprehensive
Centre, Chandigarh, on Sunday. A Tribune photograph

Event proceeds go to slum kids
Mohali, December 21
More than 100 students from Mohali participated in the 22nd mega event organised by the Rockstar Academy,
Mohali. Students from the British School, Ryan International, Vivek High School, St. Stephen’s, St. Xavier’s, Carmel,
Chitkara, DPS, YPS and Jeevan Mukt, performed in various events.

Woman injured as ‘tawa’ bursts
Patiala, December 21
Watch out, the tawa you are using in your kitchen could be cause of an accident. A case of “tawa blast” reported at a private medical college hospital at Banur, near here, has brought into focus the need for using quality tawa for cooking purposes.

Fearing parents, Class V students walk 40 km
Fatehgarh Sahib, December 21
Fearing parents' wrath over academic failure, two brothers walked their way 40 km from Patiala to Fatehgarh Sahib
Gurudwara. The incident came to light when cops came across the two kids, Harsh Pratap (11) and Mehtab Singh (9), at Madhopur police barricade near Sirhind at around midnight.

Joga Rallah campus to have teaching blocks
Patiala, December 21
One of the six neighbourhood campuses of Punjabi University, Patiala, at Joga Rallah that happens to be one of the most backward villages of Mansa district, will have its own new teaching blocks before the starting of next academic session.

Students join campaign
Bassi Pathana, December 21
On the National Immunisation Day, Dr Satwant Bhalla, civil surgeon, Fatehgarh Sahib, inaugurated the three-day pulse polio campaign in the sub-division by administering polio drops to the children here today.

Camp on diabetes
Bassi Pathana, December 21
The Mehar Baba Charitable Trust (MBCT) organised a diabetes, blood pressure awareness and women empowerment camp and road show at Meerpur village near here yesterday.

Travel agency told to refund Rs 52,000
Chandigarh, December 21
The District Consumer Disputes Redressal Forum has directed Monsoon Travels, Sector 34, to refund Rs 52,000 as cost of tickets after complainant and his family missed their flight to Kathmandu due to the fault of the travel agent.

9,208 cases disposed of in two months
Panchkula, December 21
A total of 9,208 cases were disposed of in the lok adalats since October 19 at the courts of Panchkula. This was stated by the Chief Judicial Magistrate and Secretary, District Legal Service Authority, Raj Gupta, on the conclusion of two-day mega lok adalat here today.

3 held for vehicle thefts
Chandigarh, December 21
The crime branch of the local police has arrested Ajay Kumar, his father Surinder Kumar and Narain Singh in vehicle theft cases.
The arrests came after a gang involved in vehicle thefts was busted by the Nawanshahr police. The three were remanded in police custody.

Minor arrested for theft
Chandigarh, December 21
A Mohali resident, Harpinder Pal Singh, filed a complaint with the police alleging that a minor, who is a resident of Chennai, tried to steal his purse from Sector 43 yesterday.

Two held for making ransom calls
Panchkula, December 21
With the arrest of two youths, the police has claimed to have solved a case of threatening calls to a resident of Sector 18 demanding money a few months ago.

House burgled in Panchkula
Panchkula, December 21
Thieves struck at Sector 7, and took away valuables from a house, when the family was not in the town.
According to the police, the owner of house no. 631, M. P. Gupta, along with his wife, was out of station when the thieves burgled into the house.

1 killed in mishap
Panchkula, December 21
A 25-year-old youth was killed when a canter hit the motor cycle he was riding on the
Panchkula-Barwala road near Funcity here yesterday. The deceased was identified as Sukhwinder Singh, a resident of Chanduan village near Rajpura in Punjab.

Golf TourneyManav moves up as Saini bows out
Chandigarh, December 21
Fifteen-year-old Ashbeer Saini, who qualified for the match play seeded third, made his exit from the LG Goodricke Eastern India Amateur going down to 30th seeded young gun Angad Cheema by one stroke after the completion of 18 holes on the par 72 greens of Royal Calcutta Golf Club in Kolkata today.

Test MatchSecurity of teams beefed up
Chandigarh, December 21
After yesterday’s hoax bomb call to blow up the PCA Stadium, the police has intensified its security checks at different points across the city.
The focus was around Taj Hotel, the venue where players of both the teams are staying, PCA Stadium and the travel route being used to ferry the players from the hotel to the stadium and back.

An English woman takes a picture of her partner at the stands; and (right) A policeman lights a cigarette despite a ban on smoking at PCA Stadium in Mohali on Sunday. Tribune photos: Vinay Malik

Dharma a special company for Team India
Mohali, December 21
He might not match the Men in Blue when it comes to fame but Dharma Pal Singh, captain of the specially abled cricket team, Madhya
Pradesh, forms an indispensable part of every single tour of the Indian cricket team.